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Insanity On-Boarding, With a Small Chili

I’m cheap so I typically don’t purchase lunch. I eat my same turkey sandwich, chips and cookies every day. Its boring but I know exactly what to expect and those items know what I expect from them. But this day I decided to live it up, splurge and get some chili and a salad from a certain fast food chain.

Well, the crew was having their holiday party and the General Manager/Franchise Owner was meeting with members of the management team. I was like, “Cool! I love to see managers meet with their managers one-on-one informally and discuss goals and expectations.” I wanted to put my spoon down and go give that guy a high five! Then he said something that made me wanna put my spoon in the bowl and throw it at him. He told this brand new manager (uniform still had EVERY crease from the packaging), “At the end of the next four weeks, I want you to know everything!” He then proceeded in rattling off the “everything”. I felt bad for the guy.

After rescinding my hive five, I was like this has to be the WORST on-boarding speech I’ve ever heard. Now the guy kept a calm face, but inside the newbie had to be thinking, “I shoulda stayed at Burger World!”

Now, the GM could’ve been joking. He could’ve not really meant everything, but you don’t say this when you’re communicating expectations to a new employee. The point is to be real, but all while making them feel comfortable, confident and ready for success, not to have him looking like Bambi in high beams. Poor guy. Set up for failure before he even worked the creases out of his new pants.

Moral of the story, there’s nothing wrong with expecting the world from your employees or even your peers, just know the world is hard to attain in a small amount of time. Its kinda big.